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Formula One's Lewis Hamilton frustrated by downturn in Mercedes form

August 25, 2013

Lewis Hamilton is starting to get frustrated with his Mercedes ride. Photo by LAT PHOTOGRAPHIC

Having won the pole at Spa, Lewis Hamilton was clearly frustrated about being overtaken first by Sebastian Vettel and then Fernando Alonso, and thereafter not having the speed with which to hold on to either of his rivals.

Hamilton, who was in dominant form a month earlier in Hungary, has lost ground to both his rivals in the Formula One title fight.

“It’s difficult when people pull away from you, there’s nothing you can do about it,” Hamilton said. “I feel happy that we’ve extended our lead ahead of Ferrari, collectively me and Nico [Rosberg], and also I’m up to third. I’ve come and done what I planned to do, but it’s difficult when he pulls away at the rate he sometimes pulls away.”

Hamilton struggled for straight-line speed with the Spa aero package, and fears more of the same at Monza.

“It’s difficult to understand what we’ve missed out, but I think the guys will work over the next few days to try and understand where we were slower. But Eau Rouge was particularly slow for us, and down the straights. Maybe we’ll be able to unlock something before the next race, but if not then I’m hoping that Singapore onwards we’ll be much stronger.

“They’re more windy circuits, more high-downforce circuits. When you come to these two circuits, this one and the next one, you get a downforce package and you’re kind of stuck with it. It either has or hasn’t worked. We may improve in the next race, or we may be in the same position.

“We won’t be any worse, that’s for sure. From then onwards we’ll have the higher downforce package that we had in the previous races, but it should be hopefully improved again. So I’m hoping that we’ll be more competitive from then on.”

Meanwhile regarding Vettel’s lead in the championship he said, “It’s a big, big gap, it’s a huge gap. It's going to be tough to close that. I’m going to keep pushing.

“It’s going to be very, very tough, undoubtedly. He’s had a phenomenal car for a long, long time, and it still is phenomenally quick and does the job, so it’s a perfect package.

“We’ve had some really strong races but we’ve been there or thereabouts and competing with them, and we have finished ahead of them in the past, so it doesn’t meant that we can’t do that in the next races. But it’s getting closer and closer to the point where we really need to be finishing ahead every single time to close that gap.”